English for everyone

Category Archive: это интересно

ARE THE FOLLOWSNG STORIES TRUE OR FALSE?
1. A sensational discovery has been made by two American scientists. They have found the lost personal diaries of Queen Isabella of Spain, of Lolumbus and of Montezuma. We can now recreate in detail the most important conversation between the main historical figures involved in the discovery of America.

2. In old times, animals, like people, were tried before a judge. Yes, cattle horses were sometimes hanged for their crimes. On September 5, 1379, a village swineherd in France left his young son in charge of the herd. The boy, like many other naughty children, teased the baby pigs. Naturally enough, the piglets began to squeal. Three grown-up pigs attacked the boy and killed him. Three days later, these three pigs were duly tried and executed. The Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, pronounced the sentence. Before sentencing them to death, the judge considered the case of the swineherd’s other pigs. The prosecutor wanted to punish all the pigs as accomplices. The other pigs, however, were given a warning and sent home.More »

NO ONE HAS A RECIPE FOR LAUGHTER but we all recognise situations, texts or pictures which cause it. No one actually knows what humour is but many people may use it with uproarious effect and we may enjoy it. Clowns, professional entertainers, actors, writers earn their bread with it.
We all think that we have «humour” or a “sense of humour”. “Poor thing,” we say sometimes, ‘he has no sense of humour.» As a wise man once said, «Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth or a wig. How many of them will own up to a lack of humour?”
English dictionaries define humour as the quality of anything that is or seems to be funny or appeals to the comic sense or provokes laughter and the ability to understand and enjoy it.More »

You can play word games indoors when it’s too cold or wet to go outside, or in the garden when it’s too hot to do anything else.

The minister’s cat
The first player thinks of an adjective beginning with “A» and says, «The Minister’s cat is an Awful cat.» The next player thinks of an adjective beginning with «B» and says, «The minister’s cat is an Awful, Bold Cat,» and so on, each player calling out all the adjectives that have been used before, and then adding a new one in alphabetic order.
Anyone who makes a mistake or takes too long drops out until there is only one player — the winner — left.More »

SCOTTISH APPETITE
One day two friends were sitting in a restaurant. One of them, a Scotsman, told his friends he would bet ten shillings that he could eat a turkey and three pounds of sausages. Of course his friends did not believe this. So the turkey was roasted and put before him on the table. With great astonishment his friends watched him eating the bird. And after some minutes he also swallowed the three pounds of sausages! So they had to pay the money.
The Scotsman finally drank some glasses of beer and then went home together with one of his friends. But when they arrived at the front door of the house, the Scotsman said to his friend: “Please don’t tell my wife that I’ve eaten so much.”More »

The first Metro line went into service on May 15, 1935, between Sokolniki and Gorki Park. The 11.6-kilometre line served 13 stations. The longest line in Moscow today is the Кaluzhsko-Rizhskay line, from Medvedkovo to Bitsevsky Park. It takes 58 minutes and 30 seconds to travel the 38 km. The Moscow Metro is the busiest underground system in the world. Each day, it carries 9 million passengers, twice as many as either the London Underground or the Paris Metro.

The first railroad station in Moscow was the Nikolayevskiy, later renamed the Leningradskiy, built in 1849. The first rail line between Moscow and St Petersburg was inaugurated in 1851.More »

Halicarnassus was one of the most beautiful and richest cities of Asia Minor. It was the capital of the kingdom of Caria, a province of the Persian Empire in what is now south-west Turkey. Halicarnassus was the native city of Herodotus, «father of History». The magnificent temples of Halicarnassus, made of white marble, beautiful palaces, theatres, gardens and fountains attracted visitors from many countries. One of the fountains near the temple of Aphrodite was especially popular. People believed that its magic water could return love and bring happiness to lovers.
When the Persians made Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Northern India, Syria and Egypt part of their kingdom, the King of Persia found it difficult to control his vast empire. He could do it only with the help of local rulers, the satraps.More »

If I had been present at the creation, I’d have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe. (Alphonse the Learned — A. D. 1221-1284)

The Titanic was the biggest ship the world had ever seen. People said it was the fastest ship too. But on its very first trip the Titanic sank to the bottom of the sea! How did this terrible thing happen? And where is the wreck of the great ship now?

UNSINKABLE AND LUXURIOUS!
It’s spring of 1912. The whole world is talking about “The Wonder Ship” built by the British. The name of the ship is the ‘Titanic’, She is the biggest ship the world has ever seen. She is as tall as an eleven-story building and is almost four city blocks long! In April the ship is getting ready to leave on its maiden trip across the ocean. She is going all the way from England to America.More »

Have you ever heard the expression crocodile tears?
An old fable has it that crocodiles cry bitterly after eating a victim. Their tears are to show how sorry they feel for the innocent person. So the expression crocodile tears has come to mean ‘make-believe sorrow or sadness.’

One of Aesop’s fables tells of a fox who wanted some beautiful, sweet-smelling grapes. The fox tried and tried to get the grapes, but they were just a bit higher than he could reach. When the fox realized that he couldn’t reach the grapes, he walked away. As he left, he told himself that the grapes were probably sour and that he really didn’t want them. Now, when someone says something bad about something they want and can’t have, we sometimes say that they are experiencing sour grapes.More »

The human species, according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow, and the men who lend. Ch. Lamb — Человеческий вид, в соответствии с лучшей теорией, которую я могу сформулировать, состоит из двух отдельных рас, люди, которые занимают, и те, которые дают взаймы. Ч. ЛэмMore »

It’s a fundamental debate in democratic countries: how should society punish murderers? Or terrorists? Or kidnappers?
In some countries capital punishment has been abolished. But it is still used in others. In the US, 39 states have the death penalty and 11 don’t. Different states use different methods of execution: the electric chair, gas chamber, injection of poison. In Russia, capital punishment still exists, but the parliament has started discussions about abolishing it.
At one time capital punishment was used for many crimes (offences). The Bible, for example, prescribed death for at least 30 crimes.More »